ABIDING IN JOY

John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

I do not have an exhaustive vocabulary to impress you with.

I do not read endlessly on what others think about God, the Bible, doctrine, or the Christian walk.

I do not even seek for you to enjoy what I write here. But there are some things that need to be said.

Let's look at my text from above:

Jesus is stating that if we are of Him, we will produce fruit as long as we abide in Him.

Forgive me if I have trouble adding commentary. It's not my fault. The Bible is so clear on this issue that I really cannot believe how foolishly some have strayed on this very subject. So if what I say seems to only be a paraphrase of the scripture, I am good with that. Our words should ALWAYS be a mirror of God's Word.

If we abide in Christ, we produce fruit (5). The father is glorified when we produce fruit (8). We abide in Christ when we keep His commandments (10).

I know that's rather simplified, but the Bible wasn't written for educated men, it was written for ALL men.

Jesus prefaced all of this in the previous chapter:

John 14:21-24 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

So, after all this doctrine, straight from the mouth of Christ Jesus, he continues in verse 11:

John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

What? Joy? But He spoke of commandments, laws, restrictions, demands?

Have you been paying attention? Look back at verse 10. Jesus says that our love relationship with Him is measured by the same token that His own love with the Father is measured. That token is obedience.

Remember Jesus in the garden? Not my will, but thine?

Our greatest joy can only be found through obedience.

Think of rules you have for your own children:

Don't go near the road! Why? So they don't get hit by a car!
Don't go near the stove! So they don't get burned!
No running with scissors! Really? Good, you're catching on.

The child may think the road looks like a cool place to play, but the parents know better. Their law is based on the extreme love, agape love, they possess for their child.

God's laws are no different.

1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

They may seem odd to our human intellect, but remember what Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 13:11-12 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

I know now why my parents had so many rules! I thank God they had so many rules. I'll never regret the rules, only that I didn't always obey them. They had my best interest at heart. They LOVED me and wanted me to succeed in life. They had the wisdom to know that my childish understanding would only bring me hurt and pain without their guidance.

God doesn't wish to restrict you! He wishes to guide you to the best path, and that path is laid out for you in His Word.

Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

God DOES want you to succeed! But that success is often not what the world sees as success. He is glorified when we abide in him through obedience, and produce fruit.

Verses 14-15 in my text says that when we obey, we are no longer His servants, but His friends. Oh how I long to be a friend of Jesus.

Growing up, we often failed to become friends with certain people. Often we couldn't understand why. What else could we have done to impress them?

It's not that way with God, Jesus gave us clear instruction on what makes us his friends: obedience.

There are now those who have been among us, but were not really a part of us, who have chosen to follow those who preach a heresy of Grace.

Romans 5:20-21 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Then Paul asks the obvious rhetorical question:

Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?


2 John 1:1 The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;
2 For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.
3 Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
4 I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.
5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
12 Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.
13 The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen.

Again in verse 6 we see John, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, reaffirming what Jesus said in John 14 and 15.

He is making it clear that there is no NEW commandment. What he is saying is that ALL the commandments boil down to LOVE. (see my playing near the road illustration above)

God's ultimate desire is for us to be happy. But just as the restrictions of my earthly father seemed unreasonable to me as a child, sometimes God's commandments will seem unreasonable to us. But the fruit they produce will be what not only glorifies the Father, but brings JOY to us.

Worship

This is just a thought. Nobody actually reads this, so it'll be just a quick note.

Why does a Church need different genres of services? The answer you'll get from the preacherette whose Church does this is something like: Well people like to worship in different ways.

Who is the worship service about, again? If it's all about Christ, why does how an attendee feels have any bearing whatsoever?

Can you show me a verse or passage that even seems to say God likes variety in worship? Read Isaiah 6. What Isaiah sees happening in Heaven is the same thing John sees hundreds of years later when he received the Revelation. That's not variety, that's God being the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Well if the variety is not for Him, who is it for?

Obviously it's for those in attendance. This makes these extra and varied services about the attendee, not Christ. You choose the contemporary service because YOU like it, not because God likes it.

Every justification you offer will be centered around the word "I" when your worship should center around GOD.

That makes your worship as useless as that of the Samarians. Jesus told the woman at the well that they didn't even know who they worshipped.

If you require a specific style of service in order to worship Christ, it's not Christ that you are worshipping. Your worship is in vain.

Living By Faith

Habakkuk 2:1-4  I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.  And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

We often hear that we are saved by faith, but the Bible says several times that we LIVE by faith.

When a non-believer keeps pushing me to prove God exists, I eventually have to rely on faith. God makes no point of proving He exists, yet He uses Paul (in Rom 1:20) to say that the evidences of God are clearly seen in the creation of this big rock we call Earth. Not hidden, but clearly seen.

If I may use today's vernacular: any idiot can see that God exists. But when pressed, we rely on faith. In my own heart God is real, but only God sees my heart. The challenge in salvation is to get the unbeliever to "believe," not to prove anything.

If I prove to you that God exists, your faith is in your own knowledge. God is not pleased by knowledge. God is pleased by faith.

Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

I almost said we "fall back" on faith, but it is not a fall back position. It is the position by which we live.

So here is my assertion:
If I am not required to prove God to the non-believer, I also do not have to prove righteous living to a believer.

Let me explain:
Many things are clear as being right or wrong because God makes them clear in His Word. But, as we know, some things are clear to one saint, and not the next.

I'm not getting into specifics, but let's get personal:
If you KNOW you are going to Heaven when you die based on faith. You are willing to bank your eternal destination, a choice between Heaven or Hell, on simple faith. Then why, oh why, do you require absolute proof of what God sees as unrighteous?

John 7:17- If any man will do his (God's) will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

1 Samuel 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

Do you really need me to post a study comparing the few times "liberty" is mentioned in the Bible compared to the hundreds of times "law" "command" and "obey" are mentioned? In the sermon on the mount did Christ speak of being lenient about laws, or did he confirm the spirit of the law to be much stricter than the letter?

1 Corinthians 6:12  All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Yes, we have liberty, in that we are justified as righteous before God, but sin still displeases God.

If we have a desire to do anything for God, would we not want his blessing. Would we not fear that some overlooked sin would separate us from God's blessing and hinder our ministry?

Ask yourself this question: With all the distractions we have today, are we closer to God than the men of God from 100 years ago? If you said yes, then your problem is foolish pride. Again, without specifics, look at every preacher you know of from early last century. What did they say about holiness?

Knowing they didn't have TV, radio, internet, and video games to distract them, I trust their view of what holiness was.

I will get specific in an issue I myself had. I'm not real clear on why Independent Baptists preach against movie theaters. Certain movies I can understand their disdain, but they preach against the actual practice of attending the theater. I know most of their claims, one simple one being that all movies put money in the hands of the guys who make the bad movies. Well, in our day, so does buying a product promoted in the movie, even though we never saw the movie. We pickup a bag of M&M's with the candies dressed as Harry Potter without hesitation and we just helped fund the witchcraft indoctrination of our youth.
But here is what I have settled in my heart. Those who came before me were much closer to God than I may ever be. So when I doubt their stance on holiness, I will choose principle over liberty. If my own standard is already higher, I will not let them drag me away from God.

Let me give the best, yet simplest, illustration:
A Wal-mart HVAC tech was attempting to explain to my coworker and I how a giant dehumidifier transferred heat between evaporator and condenser coils without a compressor. To him, it made perfect sense, but to two filtration techs with only a working knowledge of the units we cleaned, it was ancient Greek. He finally just smiled, pressed his forefinger into his chest, and said,"Sometimes you just have to press the 'I Believe' button." WOW! You ever wanted to run shouting through a Wal-mart? My coworker was an Apostolic Pentecostal, so the analogy was not lost on him, either.

We spend so much time looking for absolutes, and we should. But some absolutes are known only to God. For those God has provided a big red button on our heart, emblazoned with "FAITH" on it's face. Instead of looking for ways to pridefully avoid the teaching of our spiritual fathers, why not just press our fingers into our chest, and say, "I believe!"

Hebrews 11:6a  But without faith it is impossible to please him:

A Wise Son

Proverbs 15:20a  A wise son maketh a glad father:

Jakie's future plans have always been to be in law enforcement. I assume it is because I was a military policeman for a while. I did not want him spending three years idle waiting to turn 21, so I suggested he join the Army Reserve and start college.

We were already discussing him joining ROTC and earning his commission. We were thinking he might have to attend Vanderbilt and commute each day.

While on vacation we visited the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame/Museum. Jakie was very interested in their history, as was I. I had told him that with a four year degree, he could apply for federal law enforcement jobs, so jobs on the level of the Rangers were interesting to him. I was looking forward to having a son in law enforcement. It would be my vicarious return to the field.

But all of that has changed. I talked to him on Friday night after the kids returned from youth camp. I will not go into most of his story. I want him to be able to share it himself after he returns from working at the Bill Rice Ranch.

But what I will share is that he said he has spent the last six months debating with himself on God's call on his life. Some things happened at camp, and upon returning from camp that sealed the deal. Jakie has surrendered to preach.

3 John 1:4  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

I was perfectly fine with him being a cop and an officer in the Army. I never pushed him to anything. I only wanted him to continue to be faithful to God in whatever he chose as a profession.

Pray for him as he begins to prepare for the ministry. He still has a few years left in school, then he'll begin Bible College.

I am overjoyed at his decision. I am definitely a "glad father."

Are You A Man?

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;" Eph 5:25.

Anything less, makes you a boy, not a man!

Notice it doesn't say kind wife, pretty wife, obedient wife, loving wife, smart wife, etc. It just says love your wife.

If you follow that simple command, she becomes all the above, and so much more.

When you "give yourself" for her, you become not just a real man, but the man of her dreams.

But when you put yourself first, you're nothing more than an immature little boy.

When did King David mess up?
"At a time when kings went out to battle."
He was supposed to be out in the battle, laying himself on the line for his kingdom. He chose instead to rest on prior accomplishments, and enjoy what was "due" him as king.

A man is king of his castle. His family is his kingdom. He is "due" the respect and honor of his wife and kids.

But if he fails to put them first in everything, he fails as a man, and failure becomes his constant companion.

Bathsheeba is only attractive to a boy.

The man nevers gives her a second look because his focus is on the battle, and the preservation of his kingdom.

BE A MAN!

Repent or Perish

"...Except ye REPENT, ye shall ALL likewise PERISH." Jesus Christ from Luke 13, verses 3 & 5.

Believe it, or not, I've been accused of "forcing" my religion on others. My response: I sincerely wish I could. But it doesn't work that way.

If God's plan was to apply "holy water" I'd raid the pool at the Vatican, load a water cannon, and it would look like 1960's Birmingham everywhere I went.

But God's plan is personal salvation. So, regardless of anyone's consent, I must show and tell.
"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" Romans 10:14 (King James Version)

I show the Gospel by the choices I make in life, my testimony.
I tell the Gospel by sharing the fact that if you do not put you faith in Christ and in his death, burial,and ressurection for the atonement of man's sin, you WILL spend eternity in a very real Hell.
I often fail at both. Thank God for grace!

But your unbelief will never change God's plan, and His plan, simply stated, is Repent or Perish.

I pray you choose the former.

btw- preacher in the above verse means a "proclaimer." Proclaiming the Gospel is the duty of all Christians.

(this is something I posted on facebook, today)